BRIAN FUL­TON’S DAY IN HIS­TORY: 100 YEARS AGO

Nov. 11, 1918

The Times-Tribune
- 2018-11-11
- LOCAL
- BRIAN FUL­TON, li­brary man­ager, over­sees the timestri­bune’s exsan­sive dig­i­tal and Saser ar­chives and is an author­ity on lo­cal his­tory. Con­tact Brian at bful­ton@ timessham­rock.com or 570-348-9140.

Ar­mistice Day cel­e­brated

News of the sign­ing of the ar­mistice woke peo­ple from their beds. Some still dressed in sleep­wear took to the streets to start cel­e­brat­ing the end of the war. As the sun be­gan to rise, the rev­el­ers started to make their way to down­town Scran­ton. By 8 a.m., the streets of down­town were filled with thou­sands cel­e­brat­ing.

Busi­nesses and pub­lic build­ings in down­town did not open. Min­ers and fac­tory work­ers stayed away from work. Schools were to re­open af­ter hav­ing been closed for weeks be­cause of the in­fluenza epi­demic, but stu­dents and teach­ers didn’t show up be­cause of the cel­e­bra­tions.

As the day went on, more and more peo­ple joined the cel­e­bra­tions. Some took to streets bang­ing pot and pans

A “vic­tory band for your hat,” pub­lished Nov. 11, 1918, in The Scran­ton Times. Peo­ple were urged to wear the band at a vic­tory pa­rade in Scran­ton that night cel­e­brat­ing the end of World War I.

while oth­ers blew whis­tles and rang bells.

Mayor Alex Con­nell called for a mas­sive pa­rade to be held at 7:30 p.m. from Washington Av­enue and Mul­berry Street.

The pa­rade in­cluded mil­i­tary, pa­tri­otic, re­li­gious, so­cial and fra­ter­nal or­ga­ni­za­tions, and em­ploy­ees of busi­nesses from through­out the city.

The marchers waved the Stars and Stripes as they marched through­out the city. It was es­ti­mated that close to 10,000 peo­ple marched in the vic­tory pa­rade.

The Ho­tel Jermyn and

Ho­tel Casey also held cel­e­bra­tions mark­ing the end of the Great War. And a mass meet­ing was held at Town Hall for the United War Work Cam­paign. Speak­ing at the meet­ing was Lt. Con­ingsby Daw­son, author of the book “The Glory of the Trenches.” He spoke of his ser­vice in an ar­tillery unit with the Cana­dian army.